"When you're in jail, a good friend will be trying to bail you out. A best friend will be in the cell next to you saying, 'Damn, that was fun'."
— Groucho Marx
I Am Puzzled By Some Things
Perfect Stranger
Brutal Murder
These terms trouble me. Is there an imperfect stranger and is there a murder that isn't brutal. I mean, doesn't murder imply brutality. It just sounds redundant to me.
Perfect stranger seems to be a lazy euphemism - complete stranger is equally silly - used by lazy writers. Brutal murder, I would think, is a counter-point to such Coroner-originating phrases as 'gentle strangulation'. The murder victim, of course, has no opinion.
Admittedly you have a good point although most expressions could be debated in this way. Perfect stranger means you've never seen or heard of that person. Imperfect stranger means, never seen, never talked but heard of.. Just a theory.
Then, of course, there was the time that I was told that some acquaintances of mine had gone to see a specific rabbi because he was reputed to give "a good brachah (blessing)." There's such a thing as a *bad* brachah???
Makes me think of people, when talking, referring to "past experience." (eg: "Past experience has taught me...")
Isn't all experience in the past?
Perfect stranger: someone whom you really, truly have never met and do not know.
Imperfect stranger: someone whom you do not remember meeting but who knows and remembers you, and after a long conversation, leaves you with that awkward and embarrassing feeling that you should know their name and where you met, but it's too late in the conversation to say, "By the way, who are you?"
11 comments:
Practice makes perfect. I want to be perfectly stranger.
I don't want to be brutally murdered.
I think with 'brutal murder' they are trying to imply that it was committed in such a way that it was a bit more nasty than usual.
Brutal Murder makes sense. I think most would agree there are better and worse ways to go. I guess it's the emphasis.
Perfect Stranger, you got me there.
Perfect stranger seems to be a lazy euphemism - complete stranger is equally silly - used by lazy writers. Brutal murder, I would think, is a counter-point to such Coroner-originating phrases as 'gentle strangulation'. The murder victim, of course, has no opinion.
To me a raping, stabbing, shooting-in-the face murder in cold blood is much more brutal than say...a poisoning. But still, murder is murder.
Admittedly you have a good point although most expressions could be debated in this way.
Perfect stranger means you've never seen or heard of that person.
Imperfect stranger means, never seen, never talked but heard of..
Just a theory.
Colloquialisms are usually goofy.
Then, of course, there was the time that I was told that some acquaintances of mine had gone to see a specific rabbi because he was reputed to give "a good brachah (blessing)." There's such a thing as a *bad* brachah???
Giving a wife an overdose of poison and sleeping pills would hardly be considered a brutal murder:)
Makes me think of people, when talking, referring to "past experience." (eg: "Past experience has taught me...")
Isn't all experience in the past?
Perfect stranger: someone whom you really, truly have never met and do not know.
Imperfect stranger: someone whom you do not remember meeting but who knows and remembers you, and after a long conversation, leaves you with that awkward and embarrassing feeling that you should know their name and where you met, but it's too late in the conversation to say, "By the way, who are you?"
I don't want to be brutally murdered.
Good to know. ;)
Rhea,
Fair enough.
Y,
Emphasis is everything.
Benning,
Lazy euphemism. I like the sound of that.
Stace,
Depends on the poison.
Prag,
Nothing wrong with a theory.
Brooke,
Quite true.
Subway,
A bad bracha. I can think of a few.
Bacon,
No, that would be a bad bracha. ;)
Isn't all experience in the past?
Good question. I am experiencing this moment right now, in the present.
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